Hype against Arpaio significantly overblown

Arpaio protesters have been getting more media coverage lately, and for little reason. Overreported in the mainstream media, supposedly “thousands” or “hundreds” depending on which account you read protested against him Saturday. What the articles fail to tell you is about once a year, illegal immigrants and their supporters have a march to support illegal immigration. Last year the turnout was dismal, probably due to the fact that many illegal immigrants have left the state, and Arpaio is now monitoring the parades, so they’d be risking arrest if caught violating the law. Relative to the first illegal immigrant march about three years ago, which sources report had 30,000 protesters, this one was actually sparsely attended.

The Republic’s pro-illegal immigrant liberal columnist E.J. Montini wrote a column yesterday criticizing the protesters for getting their facts wrong, discrediting their argument by trying to portray Arpaio negatively for things that weren’t accurate, like comparing him to a former racist Sheriff (the title of the march was “Stop Immigrant Bashing in Arizona. No More Bull Connors!”):

Many of the illegal immigrants marching in the parade carried signs that blamed Arpaio for inmates’ mental health treatment, something the jails have received failing grades for from the government. Montini should have mentioned this mistaken blame in his article too. The county – Board of Supervisors – is responsible for choosing the mental health provider contracts, not Arpaio.

But for the most part, as the Republic struggles to breathe its last dying gasps before it follows other newspapers like the Tucson Citizen out of business, it is pulling out the stops to bash Arpaio in practically every issue. On Feb. 26, the Republic featured a top-of-the-fold, front page article declaring, “Report: ICE program used by Arpaio a failure.” A few sentences into reading it revealed that it it wasn’t some legitimate report put out by the government or a reputable, well-known organization. It was by “Justice Strategies” out of Brooklyn, NY. What does a little-known organization in another state know about our jails? If you just go to the About Us – Staff page on their website, you’ll see that BOTH of their two staff members are funded by none other than the left wing millionaire George Soros. Why didn’t the Republic report this, in the interests of fairness and exposing bias? If Soros is funding a study, you can guarantee which way it will turn out. One of their founders, Kevin Pranis, is co-founder of the NY Moratorium Project, which means he wants to eliminate prison altogether. “In 1996 Pranis established the Prison Moratorium Project for the express purpose of working to eliminate all prisons in the United States — particularly private-sector, for-profit prisons. Affiliated with the U.S. chapter of the Socialist International.” He’s also Former Youth Section Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

So there you have it. An organization that wants to eliminate prisons entirely has concluded that the 287g program permitting local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants “doesn’t work.” Is there *any* program Arpaio could implement that *would* work? According to Justice Strategies, no program would work since their ultimate goal is to get rid of jails and prisons. If they were honest, they would call themselves “Eliminate Incarceration.”

So don’t believe all the hype against Arpaio. It’s just the usual annual clamor by illegal immigrants, now funded by Soros. Arpaio isn’t “anti-immigrant,” he’s anti-illegal immigration, just like the vast majority of law-abiding Arizonans. To try and confuse the two is deceptive and dishonest. Arpaio is doing his job. If the Soros types out there don’t like it, then they need to get the law changed.

Congressman John Shadegg isn’t any more help than The Arizona Republic. Shadegg states Republicans like Sheriff Joe Arpaio are giving the Republican Party the image of “intolerant xenophobes.” Is Shadegg taking Soros money too?

Arpaio is a blowhard, publicity hound, petty tyrant. The quicker the Republican Party disowns him, the better. He threw in with Napolitano and got her elected in 2002 because she went into the tank for him in the 1998 federal investigation. To show how dumb he is, Napolitano turned on him as soon as she was done with him, and what could he do aout it except look stupid.. He has cost the county millions in lawsuits with his incompetentcy.

Any true conservative would have no use for this old fool. I certainly don’t.

I’m with James D.: Arpaio is scum of the lowest order. The guy was moving funds around during an audit, wasted money on that stupid armored vehicle he uses in parades, he allows his friends to double-dip, bought too many helicopters, etc. All of this just SCREAMS corruption and wastefulness, yet the drones in Maricopa keep re-electing him time and again. James is right, we should NEVER forgive him for appearing in pro-Janet commercials when Matt ran against the pink gorilla.

What makes me the angriest is when he allows warrants to pile up, THEN he goes on a sweep and tries to make a media splash about what a great job he’s doing. That absolute A-hole should be all over warrants ALL THE TIME, not letting them pile up so he can act like a fool on TV.

I too have no use for the little fascist and I’ve voted against him every chance I’ve had.

Let’s not forget that Napolitano got elected by a mere 11,000 votes the first time, and Arpaio was in her commercials supporting her. What did that get us? Six years of liberalism and near bankruptcy.

A true conservative believes in limited government. A truly conservative sheriff would not strut around trying to show how tough he is. When I was a kid, the tough guys didn’t have to brag about it. Everyone already knew. It was the weenies who pushed around the little kids, and then always backed down when they got in a real fight. Napolitano kicked Joe’s you- know-what when she was through using him, and all he could do was cry about it like a little girl.

For those angels who have NEVER made a mistake in life in a public arena, may God Bless you and IF you ever DID make a mistake noted by others, did you then change? Or are you still making the same stupid mistakes? And have your friends and relatives forgiven you? Or do they bring it up as the years roll by as often as possible?

You have a point and I respect it. Some mistakes can be overlooked and should be forgiven. Others cannot. Betrayal is a hard one to forget, especially when we know, as we do now, what the consequences were — six years of JaNo and bankruptcy.

May I give you another example? Arpaio led the charge against fellow Republican Sandra Dowling. When Andrew Thomas refused to press the charges against her that Arpaio wanted, Arpaio went to Democrat Terry Goddard. They spent a ton of money and had her indicted on 26 phony charges. They knocked her door in, had the helicopter circling around her house, and even kicked her little dog. The judge dismissed every one of the charges against Sandra Dowling. She finally pleaded guilty to a new charge — one measly misdemeanor charge of having hired her daughter for a minimum wage summer job years ago while her daughter was attending college. It cost Sandra Dowling over $150,000 in legal fees and she pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor to keep what little of her retirement savings she had left. Who knows what it cost the state and county. That’s our incompetent, bumbling, publicity-hound, old fool sheriff.

May I give you another example? Maricopa County is now the kidnapping capital of the United States. What is Arpaio doing about it? Mexican drug lords are extending their tentacles into Phoenix. Sending a sweep into Guadalupe to pick up a few illegals does nothing about the much bigger problem staring us in the face. We are about to become the next Tijuana. I have no sympathy for illegals. But I want him to focus on real law enforcement, not just publicity stunts.

John Shadegg as I suspect the editors of this lovely site are well aware, is trading on his old image of being a “conservative” when in fact he’s gone over to the darkside of liberal republicanism. Why? Could it be because he see’s himself taking the mantle of Senator when Kyl retires in 2012?? Methinks this is the case.

As for Sheriff Joe? I know Joe and, as has been said, we all make mistakes – but if you knew him personally you’d understand him better.

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